Beautiful Jan bicycle is made with a handcrafted wooden frame

Prague-based Bike Studio Jan developed a beautiful wooden bicycle prototype with a handmade frame crafted from over forty laminated layers of veneer. The single-piece wooden frame, called Skeleton, is constructed with a unique ellipsoid shape without any joints or connections. Jan bicycle workshop founders Jan Mucska and Jan Vidlicka recently unveiled the bicycle in a public showing in Prague.

Mucska developed the idea for a wooden bicycle two years ago and has since been working together with Vidlicka to create an original handcrafted bicycle design. Unlike other wooden frames that replicate the shape of their metal counterparts, Jan’s bicycle frame takes on an organic shape that starts out from the transformation of a circle. The wooden frame was molded into an ellipsoid shape to improve durability and response against dynamic usage. The lower part of the frame is enlarged to optimize firmness and loading capacity, while the upper part balances the forces affecting the frame.

The first two prototypes took the bicycle workshop eight months to develop. The frames are handmade to show that craftsmanship, not professional technologies, can be enough to produce high-performance bicycles. “I don’t intend to bring to the market another mass produced bicycle. I mainly want to create and transcend the limits, both technological and of common ideas and trends,” says co-founder Jan Mucska.

LEAVE A COMMENT

One thought on “Beautiful Jan bicycle is made with a handcrafted wooden frame”

Style over practicality. Why do we have to turn everything in some kind of art piece? It's supposed to be a practical little thing, that wooden frame will snap in no time, considering the amount of forces involved.